Terrestrial venomous animals, the envenomings they cause, and treatment perspectives in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Middle East and Northern Africa, collectively known as the MENA region, are inhabited by a plethora of venomous animals that cause up to 420,000 bites and stings each year. To understand the resultant health burden and the key variables affecting it, this review describes the epidemiology of sna...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:ef6df5a3cab845e28bb782c8d18bda2f 2023-05-15T15:13:28+02:00 Terrestrial venomous animals, the envenomings they cause, and treatment perspectives in the Middle East and North Africa. Timothy P Jenkins Shirin Ahmadi Matyas A Bittenbinder Trenton K Stewart Dilber E Akgun Melissa Hale Nafiseh N Nasrabadi Darian S Wolff Freek J Vonk Jeroen Kool Andreas H Laustsen 2021-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009880 https://doaj.org/article/ef6df5a3cab845e28bb782c8d18bda2f EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009880 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0009880 https://doaj.org/article/ef6df5a3cab845e28bb782c8d18bda2f PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 15, Iss 12, p e0009880 (2021) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009880 2022-12-31T11:01:37Z The Middle East and Northern Africa, collectively known as the MENA region, are inhabited by a plethora of venomous animals that cause up to 420,000 bites and stings each year. To understand the resultant health burden and the key variables affecting it, this review describes the epidemiology of snake, scorpion, and spider envenomings primarily based on heterogenous hospital data in the MENA region and the pathologies associated with their venoms. In addition, we discuss the venom composition and the key medically relevant toxins of these venomous animals, and, finally, the antivenoms that are currently in use to counteract them. Unlike Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, scorpion stings are significantly more common (approximately 350,000 cases/year) than snakebites (approximately 70,000 cases/year) and present the most significant contributor to the overall health burden of envenomings, with spider bites being negligible. However, this review also indicates that there is a substantial lack of high-quality envenoming data available for the MENA region, rendering many of these estimates speculative. Our understanding of the venoms and the toxins they contain is also incomplete, but already presents clear trends. For instance, the majority of snake venoms contain snake venom metalloproteinases, while sodium channel-binding toxins and potassium channel-binding toxins are the scorpion toxins that cause most health-related challenges. There also currently exist a plethora of antivenoms, yet only few are clinically validated, and their high cost and limited availability present a substantial health challenge. Yet, some of the insights presented in this review might help direct future research and policy efforts toward the appropriate prioritization of efforts and aid the development of future therapeutic solutions, such as next-generation antivenoms. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15 12 e0009880 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Timothy P Jenkins Shirin Ahmadi Matyas A Bittenbinder Trenton K Stewart Dilber E Akgun Melissa Hale Nafiseh N Nasrabadi Darian S Wolff Freek J Vonk Jeroen Kool Andreas H Laustsen Terrestrial venomous animals, the envenomings they cause, and treatment perspectives in the Middle East and North Africa. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
The Middle East and Northern Africa, collectively known as the MENA region, are inhabited by a plethora of venomous animals that cause up to 420,000 bites and stings each year. To understand the resultant health burden and the key variables affecting it, this review describes the epidemiology of snake, scorpion, and spider envenomings primarily based on heterogenous hospital data in the MENA region and the pathologies associated with their venoms. In addition, we discuss the venom composition and the key medically relevant toxins of these venomous animals, and, finally, the antivenoms that are currently in use to counteract them. Unlike Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, scorpion stings are significantly more common (approximately 350,000 cases/year) than snakebites (approximately 70,000 cases/year) and present the most significant contributor to the overall health burden of envenomings, with spider bites being negligible. However, this review also indicates that there is a substantial lack of high-quality envenoming data available for the MENA region, rendering many of these estimates speculative. Our understanding of the venoms and the toxins they contain is also incomplete, but already presents clear trends. For instance, the majority of snake venoms contain snake venom metalloproteinases, while sodium channel-binding toxins and potassium channel-binding toxins are the scorpion toxins that cause most health-related challenges. There also currently exist a plethora of antivenoms, yet only few are clinically validated, and their high cost and limited availability present a substantial health challenge. Yet, some of the insights presented in this review might help direct future research and policy efforts toward the appropriate prioritization of efforts and aid the development of future therapeutic solutions, such as next-generation antivenoms. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Timothy P Jenkins Shirin Ahmadi Matyas A Bittenbinder Trenton K Stewart Dilber E Akgun Melissa Hale Nafiseh N Nasrabadi Darian S Wolff Freek J Vonk Jeroen Kool Andreas H Laustsen |
author_facet |
Timothy P Jenkins Shirin Ahmadi Matyas A Bittenbinder Trenton K Stewart Dilber E Akgun Melissa Hale Nafiseh N Nasrabadi Darian S Wolff Freek J Vonk Jeroen Kool Andreas H Laustsen |
author_sort |
Timothy P Jenkins |
title |
Terrestrial venomous animals, the envenomings they cause, and treatment perspectives in the Middle East and North Africa. |
title_short |
Terrestrial venomous animals, the envenomings they cause, and treatment perspectives in the Middle East and North Africa. |
title_full |
Terrestrial venomous animals, the envenomings they cause, and treatment perspectives in the Middle East and North Africa. |
title_fullStr |
Terrestrial venomous animals, the envenomings they cause, and treatment perspectives in the Middle East and North Africa. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Terrestrial venomous animals, the envenomings they cause, and treatment perspectives in the Middle East and North Africa. |
title_sort |
terrestrial venomous animals, the envenomings they cause, and treatment perspectives in the middle east and north africa. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009880 https://doaj.org/article/ef6df5a3cab845e28bb782c8d18bda2f |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 15, Iss 12, p e0009880 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009880 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0009880 https://doaj.org/article/ef6df5a3cab845e28bb782c8d18bda2f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009880 |
container_title |
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
e0009880 |
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